Engineering Trust: Inside a Russian–Armenian Data Center Project
The launch of a data center in Armenia, implemented with the participation of the Rostelecom Group, has set a clear course toward long-term partnership and digital sovereignty.
A Long-Term Digital Play
“A data center is not primarily about diesel generators, power supply, cooling systems, or rows of neatly aligned racks. First and foremost, a data center is about trust. A client must trust the operator enough to hand over what now defines success most of all – data,” says Boris Demirkhanyan, Deputy CEO of OVIO.
Ten years ago, Armenia entered a phase of accelerated digitalization across key sectors. This shift immediately created demand for modern, powerful, and reliable IT infrastructure. Local telecom operator OVIO (formerly Rostelecom Armenia), whose network already covered the entire country, took on this challenge. Instead of pursuing a one-sided solution, OVIO formed a joint working group bringing together its own engineers and specialists from international IT company Lenovo.
This decision defined the project’s approach from the outset. Rather than importing off-the-shelf solutions, the team focused on jointly adapting technologies to Armenia’s specific regulatory and operational needs. The initiative was granted top-level state priority and included in the “Infrastructure in Exchange for Investment” program. As a result, within a year and a half, the country’s largest data center was built in the city of Abovyan in the Kotayk region.
The Value of Partnership
What makes the OVIO data center, built in cooperation with Russian IT solutions, worthy of trust in practical terms? Its core principle is full fault tolerance combined with preventive protection. A total capacity of 2 MW is supplied from two independent substations. Two machine halls housing 216 racks operate under an N+1 configuration, ensuring that backup components instantly take over in the event of any failure. Above all, however, security is the defining feature.
The OVIO data center has passed rigorous certification under key international information security standards, including ISO 27001, 27017, and 27018. It meets PCI DSS requirements for handling payment card data and holds a Tier III reliability rating. In practice, this means that maintenance or repairs can be carried out without any disruption to client services. The facility functions not merely as a hosting site, but as a digital stronghold designed to protect data from cyberattacks, physical incidents, and human error.
This approach was reinforced by strategic decisions taken under Rostelecom president Mikhail Oseevsky. Choosing not to divest the Armenian subsidiary, and instead to invest in its infrastructure, turned the asset into a growth driver and a visible element of Russian–Armenian digital cooperation.
Legal Risks Under US Law
“By Russian standards, 200 racks would be considered a small data center. But for Armenia, given the country’s size and current level of digitalization, this capacity is more than sufficient for the first stage,” said Mikhail Razbaev, Commercial Director of Rostelecom Armenia, in 2024. At the same time, the United States has announced plans to develop an alternative data center project in Armenia. Compared with the Armenian–Russian initiative, however, the two models differ fundamentally.
The US-backed project in the Kotayk region is being promoted as a technological breakthrough and Armenia’s entry ticket into the global AI hub ecosystem. An alliance between Firebird and NVIDIA promises investment, capacity, and an “AI factory.” Yet behind this narrative lies a set of legal and structural risks with direct implications for Armenia’s digital and economic sovereignty.
The core issue is not technical capacity, but jurisdiction. Infrastructure built by US companies may fall under the scope of the US CLOUD Act, which allows extraterritorial data access requests without the consent of Armenian courts or law enforcement agencies. This creates a precedent that raises serious concerns: sensitive information – including personal data and data from financial, transport, and energy sectors – could legally enter a zone of external control. This is not a question of hypothetical espionage, but of mechanisms explicitly embedded in foreign legislation.
For Armenia’s Long-Term Development
“The formation of data centers should become a driver for the emergence of new enterprises, companies, and jobs in promising sectors of the economy. This includes domestic electronics manufacturing and the deployment of component production for software and engineering systems used in data centers,” said Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Russia’s digital cooperation with Armenia has followed a gradual and deliberate path: first through telecom infrastructure development, then through joint work on equipment, engineering solutions, and service models. The data center represents a logical continuation of this trajectory – a result of accumulated expertise and institutional trust.
Today, the project performs not only a technical role, but also a market-shaping one, helping to build trust in professional data center services within Armenia. This is the essence of balanced cooperation: it does not create lock-in or dependency, but instead provides tools and confidence for independent growth, establishing a new standard of digital partnership for the country as a whole.
